


I'm Only Human

by Hexiva



Series: Human Nature [1]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movies), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Gen, Mutant Rights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 09:42:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6748690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hexiva/pseuds/Hexiva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where Erik was born human, his relationship with Charles is more strained than ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'm Only Human

**Author's Note:**

> This fic takes place primarily in First Class continuity, but Erik's hair is white/silver, for reasons I can't justify beyond "that's how I pictured him." Maybe his mutation delayed his aging slightly in canon, hence him going grey sooner without it. Yeah, that's my excuse.

The first time Charles met Erik Lehnsherr, Erik was trying to kill a mutant. And in retrospect, perhaps that should have been a sign.

Charles was tracking Sebastian Shaw, his sister and the CIA agent who’d recruited them beside him, when Charles felt an unfamiliar mind.

“There’s someone else out there.”

And then Charles was in the water, diving for the silhouette of a man below him, dragging the man up to the surface. Both of them gasped for air. Charles got his first good look at the man he’d rescued. He was dressed all in black, which made for a striking contrast with the bright silver hair plastered to his face by the water. Despite his silver hair, he didn’t look much older than Charles - mid forties at the oldest, Charles estimated.

The man shoved him away. “Get off me! G - Get off!”

“Calm down! Just breathe.” Charles turned to the ship and called out to Raven, “We’re here!”

“Who are you?” the other man demanded.

“My name is Charles Xavier. You - you’re tracking Shaw, aren’t you?"

His eyes narrowed. “How did you know that?”

“Because so am I.”

* * *

 

Charles and Erik dragged themselves up onto the boat, where Moira handed them towels and shot a disapproving look at Charles. “You shouldn’t have gone in all half-cocked. He could’ve been working for Shaw, for all you knew.”

Erik’s lip curled. “Never.”

“He was _drowning,”_ Charles insisted.

“Who are you people?” Erik demanded. “What do you want with Shaw?”

Moira opened her mouth to say something, but Charles caught her eye and she went silent.

“We’re with the CIA,” Charles explained smoothly. “We believe he’s trading information with the Russians.”

Erik glanced at Moira. Her irritated expression suggested to him that this ‘we’ Charles was talking about was comprised mostly of Moira.

“And I’m here to make sure he doesn’t get himself killed,” Raven added. She shot Charles a glance. “No matter how hard he tries.”

“Shaw’s more dangerous than you expect,” Erik said, frowning.

Charles and Raven exchanged another one of those glances. “We know,” Charles said.

“Do you, I wonder?” It was a rhetorical question.

“And what about you?” Raven asked.

“I have . . . unfinished business with him,” Erik said.

Raven looked like she was about to ask more, but Charles elbowed her in the side. “Perhaps we could join forces,” he suggested.

“I’m used to working alone.”

“United we stand, divided we fall,” Charles said. “We can help you too.”

Erik looked skeptical. “I think I’m fine on my own. What kind of help do you propose to offer? Do you even know what Shaw _is?”_

Charles bit his lip, but Raven raised an eyebrow and said, “Actually, we know more than you think.” She gave Charles a look, and Charles shook himself and then pulled a folder out of his coat. He handed it to Erik.

Erik opened it and flipped through it. There were pages and pages of calculations and tables. Most of it was beyond Erik, but the parts he could understand dealt with energy absorbed and energy radiated. Energy contained, in the shape of a man . . . “Shaw,” he said, to no one in particular. These calculations were estimations of Shaw’s powers. “Where did you get these?”

“I wrote them,” Charles said with a smile. “I’m a scientist, studying mutant abilities and genetics.”

Erik looked up from the papers at him, suspicious. “So is Shaw.”

Charles snorted. “A very poor one, if he can be called that at all. I am the foremost expert - the _only_ expert, actually - in the field of mutation. Shaw might have a doctorate, but he only wants to control mutants. Not to learn from them.”

Erik glanced between Moira and Charles. “And exactly what do you think you can learn from them?”

“How to help them,” Charles said immediately.

Erik’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think Shaw needs any help,” he said coldly. “He seems to be doing enough damage on his own.”

“Yes. And I am the one person most qualified to stop him. Because I know more about him than he does about me.” Charles met Erik’s gaze evenly.

Erik sized him up, this well-dressed man with his naive enthusiasm and determination in his eyes. He looked down at the folder, and then back up. “All right. But you follow my lead. I’ve tracked men like this before. You’ll get yourself killed.”

Raven gave him a skeptical look. “What makes you think we need _your_ help?”

“I’ll be certain to respect your combat expertise,” Charles said, smiling. Erik noticed that that was not exactly agreement.

* * *

 

“You’re afraid of them, aren’t you?” Charles said. They had just met Hank, and now they were briefly alone in the CIA facility.

“Who?” Erik asked, crossing his arms. “The CIA?”

“No, no. The mutants. Hank.”

Erik’s mouth set in a grim line, and he looked away. “This is not the first time I’ve come face to face with men who call themselves supermen.” He turned to Charles and pulled up the sleeve of his turtleneck, revealing a line of black numbers. “Do you know what this means?”

Charles nodded, silently. He couldn’t admit that he had known about Erik’s past since the first moment they had met. That it was part of the reason he’d invited Erik to help, despite the fear and hatred for mutants that he’d seen in Erik’s head. He wanted Erik to get - not revenge, per se, but _closure._ He deserved it.

“That man - the one who calls himself Shaw now - he was there, in the camps. I was one of his experimental subjects. He used to talk about mutants. About a future where mutants ruled the world, supplanting the human race.” Erik shook his head. “I don’t want to live in that future, Charles.”

Charles swallowed. “Not all mutants are like that.”

Erik looked at Charles with resignation. After a moment, he said, “No, I’m not afraid of Hank. He seems harmless enough. It’s what he represents that frightens me.”

“Shaw was a _Nazi,_ Erik. That’s where he got all of this nonsense about ruling the world. It’s not real.”

“Isn’t it?” Erik cocked his head. “It doesn’t have to be all of them, Charles. It just has to be enough. Do you think we can take down Shaw?”

“Yes,” Charles said, firmly.

“Now imagine an army of Shaws. Or worse - Emma Frosts. Shaw can kill you. Frost? She could make you forget your own name. Or turn to her side. Anything she wanted. Do you want to live in a world where, every time you talk to someone - perhaps any time you risk offending them - you must ask yourself, _Is he a mutant?”_

“It’s not their fault that they were born that way,” Charles said. His hands curled into fists at his sides. He _liked_ Erik, that was the hell of it. He could see into everyone’s minds, see their deepest fears and desires. But he rarely met anyone he felt he could _connect_ to. Sometimes he felt as if he was just playing a role, just telling people what he knew they wanted to hear. Nothing but a mirror of their own desires. It wasn’t like that with Erik, and Charles wanted to cling to that.

Erik shook his head. “It doesn’t need to be. It might not be the fault of a madman that he’s insane - but that wouldn’t make him any less of a danger to others.”

“Madmen are less violent than the general populace would think,” Charles said. It was completely beside the point, and he knew it. He felt miserable.

“But all it would take was just one madman like Shaw to destroy a city in a heartbeat,” Erik said.

* * *

 It wasn’t until that last day in Cuba that Erik learned what Charles was. Shaw frozen in place, and Charles’ voice in his head, terrifyingly intimate.

After Erik snapped Shaw’s neck, he stared down silently at the corpse. Dead, just like that. All the power at Shaw’s hands, and Charles had incapacitated him the moment he had an opening. What _couldn’t_ Charles do?

 _You didn’t have to do that, Erik,_ said Charles’ voice in his head. Erik flinched. “I know,” he said, out loud. “But he deserved it. And I deserved to do it.” He knelt down by Shaw’s body and, with shaking hands, slowly took the helmet off of his head.

_Erik, are you okay? What are you doing?_

Charles sounded so concerned. Erik lifted the helmet up and cut him off.

After that, he walked away. He wondered if he had been the only human in Charles’ little group, all along. Worse than that, he wondered if he had been working with Charles of his own free will, or if Charles had been manipulating his mind.

He knew there was no possible way to know for sure.

* * *

The next time Charles saw Erik, it was years later on a television screen. Erik looked dashing in a reddish suit, his white hair swept neatly over his head.

“ - that the person standing right next to you could be reading your mind right now,” Erik said. “This is not a threat we can live with. But we don’t need to hurt these people. All we need is to identify them. Mutant registration is not oppression - it’s protection.”

Charles felt his heart break.


End file.
